Abdolraof Rigi, the leader of the militant group Jeysh-ol-Nasr, has reportedly been killed in Pakistani territory. An unidentified source has told Al-Arabiyah that Rigi was killed on Thursday August 28 in Quetta, Pakistan.
Abdolraof Rigi is brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, the former head of Jundallah, another militant group that has fought against the Islamic Republic in Sistan Baluchistan Province. Abdolamalek Rigi was arrested and hanged in Evin Prison in 2010.
Jeysh-ol-Nasr is a group that Abdolraof Rigi established after separating from Jeysh-ol-Adl, when differences arose over the kidnapping of Iranian soldiers last March. Some reports indicate that Rigi fell out with other leaders of Jeysh-ol-Adl over the execution of one of the soldiers and formed his own group.
Five Iranian soldiers were kidnapped by Jeysh-ol-Adl last March, and while negotiations carried out by Sistan-Balichistan elders and senior members of the clergy secured the release of four of them, one of the soldiers, Jamshid Danaifar, was reportedly executed by the group.
Rigi once told Al-Arabiyah that he separated from Jeysh-ol-Adl because he belived in “the division of work and authority in contrast to the concentration of power” and resistance to his political views led him to establish Jeysh-ol-Nasr.
Jeysh-ol-Adl has issued a statement denying any involvement in Rigi’s assassination, saying their “differences were not sufficient to warrant killing or conflict.”
